


mirror, mirror

by valarus (aerinmelkor)



Series: harry potter one & dones [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Established Relationship, Eventual Happy Ending, F/M, Mirror of Erised, Not Beta Read, Not Canon Compliant, Sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-17
Updated: 2021-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-26 01:41:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30098358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aerinmelkor/pseuds/valarus
Summary: what we desire the most is reflected in the mirror of erised. that makes it dangerous because of what it offers: an escape from your reality. we know what harry, dumbledore, hermione, and ron saw. but what about you? or draco malfoy for that matter?
Relationships: Draco Malfoy & Reader, Draco Malfoy/Reader, Lucius Malfoy/Narcissa Black Malfoy
Series: harry potter one & dones [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2214564
Kudos: 6





	mirror, mirror

**Author's Note:**

> this is a canon divergence when it comes to draco's personality and life. also to add another important detail, you are his childhood friend.

Draco Malfoy often disappeared off to someplace, though Y/N never truly knew where. Since the first year, her childhood friend would disappear off to somewhere for hours on end. Often he would disappear right after class to go somewhere while Y/N found herself tugged away by her friends from the Slytherin house. Y/N tried asking Draco a few times, but he got really defensive about it. He all but snarled at her that it was none of her business so Y/N let it go.

What Y/N didn't know was that Draco discovered the Mirror of Erised long before Harry did. Draco had taken the wrong turn one day and found himself in a dungeon of sorts with just a full-length mirror in the middle of the room. Curious, he had examined the mirror wondering why it was there. When he gazed at his reflection, he saw what he desired most.

_Before him, Draco saw his father smiling, not smirking. He was smiling proudly as he looked at Draco, his hand resting on his son's shoulder. Draco's hand was on top of his father's hand on his shoulder and he was smiling widely. On the other side of Draco was Narcissa, warmly embracing him and smiling at him. Both of his parents were so proud of him._

Draco didn't realize it but tears had started to fall from his eyes and roll down his cheeks. All Draco ever wanted was a happy and normal family where his parents showed that they loved him. He wanted nothing more than to have his parents all to himself instead of sharing his father with the Ministry and the Death Eaters.

He had grown up lonely as the only child of the Malfoy household until he met Y/N. He was lucky that Y/N came from a prestigious pureblood family or his parents would have never allowed them to play together. Burned into his mind were the special lessons that his father taught him after catching him playing with some muggle children outside the manor.

* * *

_"Draco, sit." His father said sternly as he stared down his son. Lucius Malfoy was going to teach Draco that **his** son would not play with filthy muggles. His cane was leaning against his desk as his son sat before him in his office. "You are not permitted to play with filthy muggle children or talk to mudbloods." Lucius practically snarled at Draco. His grey eyes seemed to bore holes into Draco who shrunk in his seat._

_"But, father-" Draco started, but he never finished._

_CRACK! Lucius's gloved hand slapped Draco's cheek, **hard**. Draco bit back sobs as he sat there trembling in the chair, his cheek stung terribly. "Am I clear?"_

_"Yes, father." Draco replied quietly as he cradled his stinging cheek. Being the only child was quite lonely and he had only wanted to have friends to play with. But Draco knew better than to argue with his father. He could see that Lucius was on the brink of bursting into a seething rage._

_"Unfortunately, I don't believe you," Lucius told his son coldly. His grey eyes gave Draco such an icy look that the boy flinched. "So you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to teach you an unforgettable lesson so it never leaves that thick head of yours."_

_Lucius had a cruel smile on his face as he picked up his cane and approached Draco. Draco felt the blood drain from his face when he saw his father walking towards him with his cane. He knew what was going to happen all too well. Once, he had asked his father why they didn't talk to muggleborns and he found out the secondary purpose of the cane. Instinctively, Draco curled into a ball._

_Despite a break from being a Death Eater, Lucius was still awfully sadistic. He beat Draco while reminding him each time that he was not permitted to spend time among muggles or mudbloods. Then Lucius healed Draco's wounds with his wand, which was typically the signal for Draco to leave. As Draco prepared to leave, Lucius spoke up, "No, you are to stay. You will not be leaving this room until you understand that you are to **never** associate or interact with those people. You will **not** be a blood traitor." _

_Draco froze, looking like a deer in the headlights. He wasn't expecting to have to stay longer with his father. Fear coursed through him as he returned to the chair. His whole body shook as he sat there, but Lucius felt no pity for his son. Absolutely none._

_"Crucio."_

_Draco felt his body burn with pain. All he felt was pain. It was like every nerve in his body was on fire. Even the cane didn't hurt half as much as being hit with this curse. He fell off the chair and curled into a ball on the floor, still shaking with pain.Tears and snot began to drip on to his face. Sobs began to escape his lips as he trembled from the curse. Lucius's eyes flashed angrily when he saw that._

_"You. Are. Not. To. Cry." Lucius snarled at his son. He kicked Draco with a displeased expression._

_Lucius released Draco from the curse after about fifteen minutes. Those fifteen minutes felt like the longest fifteen minutes in Draco's life._

* * *

After that incident, his mother found him a playmate from the L/N family. While Narcissa was aware of what Lucius did to her son, there was little she could do for Draco. She came from a very traditional pureblood family and one of the most important things she learned was to never question her husband. So she did what little she could for her son by finding him a friend from a respectable family.

Y/N and Draco spent a lot of time between their two homes playing together. They learned to ride brooms together, played Quidditch together, and even made trips to Diagon Alley together. She brought out the fun in Draco when they spent time together. During those moments they spent together, Draco almost forgot about his father's lessons. He was happy and carefree when he was with her. However, the peace didn't last as long as Draco would have liked.

His father introduced him to two boys a few years before he was to attend Hogwarts. "These are Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle. They are the sons of my friends." Lucius looked at Draco expectantly, a cue that signaled Draco was to greet the two boys.

"I'm Malfoy, Draco Malfoy." He said tersely, offering a hand to shake to the boys. The three boys shook hands as their fathers all chatted amicably. Draco secretly wished that he was with Y/N instead of the sons of his father's cronies. It wasn't as fun as playing Quidditch with Y/N, but he dared not complain.

By the time Draco and Y/N started their first year, Crabbe and Goyle had become a part of their friend group. As time passed, their friend circle grew to have more and more purebloods and blood supremacists. Draco had been completely brainwashed by his father's "education" for him.

He naturally talked down to any muggles and muggleborn, prefering to call them mudbloods. Draco was the brooding type who never showed his emotions and bottled everything up until it burst. He was nothing like the open, carefree, kind boy that Y/N once knew. Yet she couldn't bear to leave Draco alone despite disagreeing with his behavior.

Lucius's special education, in his mind, worked perfectly. After tons of Cruciatus curses over the years, Draco was finally a proper pureblood boy. His son knew better than to socialize with the likes of squibs, mudbloods, or muggles. He taught Draco to be cruel, trained it into him the way he learned it from _his_ father. As one son passed the knowledge to his son of cruelty, the shared pain they had as Malfoys also grew. If there was a signature feature of the Malfoy family, it was probably cruelty. Lucius prided himself in teaching Draco to be a true man who didn't show an iota of emotion. True men were cold and distant from everyone, Abraxas Malfoy taught his son. And he had learned that from his forefather. So the cycle went as they passed these things on from father to son.

Like the Malfoy men before them, they repeated the pattern of vicious training and spoiling. Draco's father never hesitated to spend on him, so long as Draco behaved and did as he was told. Sometimes Lucius bought Draco things as a form of apology for being so harsh on him. Other times he did it because he wanted to show off through his son. But there were also moments when Lucius did it because he cared about Draco's happiness, though Draco never realized those moments existed.

* * *

_The one time Lucius did seem even the tiniest bit proud of Draco was when he told his father that he and Y/N were in a relationship. Lucius had clapped him on the back, almost too hard. That was the closest his father had ever been to feeling proud of Draco._

_And that moment had only happened because Y/N's family was a branch of the 28 Pureblood families._

_Though he had grown, Draco still hungered and thirsted for his father's approval. He would have done absolutely anything for his father to truly love him instead of regarding him coldly. He wanted nothing more than to be just as great a man as his father (in his mind), but he always seemed to fall short. For a while, he used to confide in Y/N about such things until his father overheard one day. That day his father had to remind him, with the help of "Crucio," that men were self-sufficient._

_"Men do not need women to comfort them when they cry because men do not cry." Lucius had told him._

_From that point forward, Draco began to close himself off from Y/N because he wanted to please his father. He didn't tell her a thing about his emotions or his feelings. Instead he held it all in until he thought he would burst. He held all his thoughts, feelings, and pain in._

_He continued to endure the Cruciatus curses every time he stepped out of line._

_When Draco found out his father was a Death Eater, he felt proud. However, when his father fell out of good graces with Voldemort, Draco had to accept the mark. He had been terrified of accepting, but found no choice in the moment. To save his father, he had no other choice but to join. In that darkness, Y/N was his secret source of light. She was the only one who never changed despite the times changing._

* * *

Y/N was no better off than Draco, in all honesty. Her parents told the girl to not get close with anyone who wasn't in her house or was at least a half-blood. However, her parents never raised a hand against her. Instead, Y/N was kept like a songbird in a gilded cage until she met Draco. He was her first friend within the gilded cage, but now she felt like she was losing him.

She was not like Draco or the rest of his friend group. Y/N was well-liked among other students at Hogwarts, something that was pretty rare among the Slytherin. She treated everyone with the same icy politeness and formalities that no one really found reason to dislike her. When Draco and his cronies would bully students, Y/N would usually be the one who apologized after he, Crabbe, and Goyle wandered off. But most of the time Y/N was happiest at the Hospital Wing, learning from Madam Pomfrey.

Y/N hoped to be a Healer at St. Mungo's in the future, so learning from Madam Pomfrey was the best way to get into it. She also went there to avoid having to be present when Draco and his friends were bullying yet another student. She was there when the Buckbeak incident occurred. That was actually the reason why she had wanted to learn how to heal. She hated seeing Draco in pain and trying to pretend that he didn't feel any of it.

Her parents had once muttered something about the Malfoys being a Death Eater family. Having accidentally heard that, Y/N realized that Draco would often be in danger in his future. She wanted to be able to keep him safe however she could. It was for this reason that she toiled away at the Hospital Wing, learning everything she could. It was for Draco that she stayed after class to learn more charms from Professor Flitwick and asked Professor Snape to teach her to make potions.

* * *

Today Draco was missing again, so she spent her time at the Black Lake reading a book about potions. As she read the book, she couldn't help but wonder where he was. She was not blind to his ragged looks and the bags under his eyes. Clearly something had happened the summer before they started their sixth year, though she didn't know what.

While her parents cared about blood purity, they were also careful about voicing their support for anything. It was due to their careful nature that they discovered that Lord Voldemort was not a pureblood. This discovery caused them to refuse to join the Death Eaters, though they provided support in other forms including money and rooms. It was for this reason that the entire L/N family remained uninvolved in joining Voldemort.

Once she finished her book, she headed inside to return it and almost ran straight into Harry Potter. Y/N swerved at the last minute and quickly continued to walk towards the library without pausing. But Harry gave chase and followed her. "Where's Malfoy?"

Y/N quietly turned to face Harry, an unreadable expression on her face. Even if she knew, based on the look in Potter's eyes, telling him would be bad. He had that look, the one that said he was going to cause trouble for Draco.

"What makes you think I know?" She countered.

With that, she turned on her heel and continued to the library ignoring Harry. She was not going to get involved in the latest feud between Harry and Draco. Honestly, it was worse than a soap opera; those two were always at each other's necks.

Later at dinner, she didn't see Draco at all. Usually he came to dinner, albeit disheveled, but still he came. When she finished dinner, she walked to the kitchen to ask the house elves for some food for Draco.

Once she had enough food for Draco, she started to look for him. It was by chance that she nearly bumped into him as he walked from Professor Snape's office. He seemed so preoccupied that he didn't notice her. She silently followed him up to the seventh floor where he opened the Room of Requirements and entered. Y/N quickly followed him in.

"Draco." She said as he stood before a cupboard.

His hair was awfully disheveled and his fists were clenching and unclenching. He didn't seem to hear her at all. Draco continued to mutter spells at the cupboard, growing more desperate with each spell.

"Draco." She repeated as he began to bang his forehead against the cupboard.

He still didn't hear her as he stared straight at the cupboard with a frustrated expression. Draco looked nearly in tears as he stared at the cupboard that refused to obey his wishes. He was about to break down when he felt a hand gently rest on his arm. Draco spun around to see none other than Y/N looking up at him with an inquisitive face.

"How long have you been here?" He asked coldly, his grey eyes boring holes into her.

"Since you left Snape's office. I brought food for you since you skipped dinner." She replied, offering him the bag of food from the kitchen.

His grey eyes scanned her face looking for any hint as to what she was thinking. He needed to know if she spotted his moment of weakness, but all he saw reflected in those eyes of hers was caring.

"I won't ask what you're doing," she says gently as she looks into his eyes. "But if you need me to do anything for you, just know I'm here. And if you ever need someone to confide in, I'm here for you."

Draco scanned her face to see if she's lying. She's telling the truth, he realized as he watches her expression. He _almost_ wanted to lean on her and just tell her everything, but he holds it in. Instead, he wrapped her into his arms and rests his chin on the top of her head. Y/N hugged him back, pressing her face into his chest as they stand there together. Somehow, they will make it through all of this.

He released her from his embrace to lean against something and eat something. While Draco ate, she wandered around the room. She examined various furniture and knick-knacks before she spotted a full-length mirror in the back of the room. Y/N walked towards it and stared at her reflection in the mirror.

_She saw more than herself in the mirror, which made no sense since it was just her. She saw Draco standing by her side looking very happy. Her head was resting on his shoulder and his arm was wrapped about her waist. She couldn't fully understand what was going on in the mirror, but she saw Draco smiling and laughing. That made her happy, being able to see him safe and happy._

She felt tears well up in her eyes as she looked at him there. Draco was actually showing emotions in the reflection. It could be possible that he might return to the person he once was. That thought made her feel unbelievably happy.

"Y/N? Are you okay?" Draco asked her, startling her terribly.

"Yeah, I am." She said quickly wiping her tears away.

"What do you see in the mirror?"

So she told him exactly what she saw in the mirror. The way he smiled back at her and laughed with her reflection. Something inside Draco _felt_ an emotion, which shocked him. He thought that he had lost all his emotions after everything his father taught him about being a Malfoy man. He stood behind her, holding her close to his chest. She rested her hand on his arm as they stared into the mirror together.

_He was shocked to see the image change to have her in it with him and his family. He saw the Y/N in the mirror give him a kiss on his cheek, and he saw his smile in response. Not the kind that only reached half-way or the ones he faked, but a genuinely happy smile. But that wasn't what surprised him, it was the fact that he was showing deep emotions. It was joy and elation on his face, not some half-baked happiness._

That was what got him through the duel with Harry in the bathrooms. That image of them in the mirror kept him sane after he faced off with Dumbledore. It was that last image in the Mirror of Erised that helped him through the darkest times of his life. When he had to watch his aunt torture one of his classmates in their basement. The many meetings he attended as a Death Eater. The Second Wizarding War.

Y/N had been a healer in the war who healed indiscriminately. It did not matter to her who or what was injured. She hated being a witness to suffering so she healed whenever she could. But there were also times where she had to euthanize. Those moments caused her dirty face to have permanent tear streaks. She grieved for the living and the dying without discrimination. All of them were suffering or had suffered. War was not beautiful, it was indescribably ugly.

* * *

_Healing after the war had been tough for Draco. He had seen and committed a lifetime's worth of atrocities in the short time he was a Death Eater. He could never unhear the screams or forget the corpses. He held it all in and said nothing about it._

_He struggled to trust Y/N once he became a Death Eater and witnessed so many atrocities. Draco had learned Legilimency and Occlumency in order to perform his duties properly. Thanks to his father's brutal training, he was a master at it. Y/N had also been trained to a similar degree by her parents due to it being part of the pureblood curriculum. So Y/N earned Draco's trust by allowing him to perform Legilimency on her._

_"Legimens." Draco murmured, pointing the wand at her._

_She allowed him full access to her mind. He scanned through every last bit of her mind, working to look for anything that was untrustworthy. Instead what he found was warmth from her and her deep feelings towards him. He almost withdrew from the strength of her emotions towards him. She loved him, very much. So much that she'd let him enter her mind just to prove herself to him. Prove to him that she was worthy of his trust._

* * *

After the war, Draco grew to hate his Dark Mark. It was a memory of the darkest period of time in his life. People hated him for his Mark. They shied away from him wherever he went because they could see it and there was nothing he could do. People didn't avoid Y/N, just him. When he walked by Y/N's side, he could hear the whispers and feel the stares. He once felt foolishly invincible within the walls of Hogwarts, but now all he felt was weakness. Draco felt weak because everyone saw him as a former enemy, as a Death Eater. People that Draco once tormented were now the ones with the power over him. Some pitied him while others tormented him the way he had done to them.

Like him, many of the Slytherin were shunned to some degree since most refused to partake in the battle. So those in the Slytherin house adopted a policy of us against them. They always walked around in a large huddle of Slytherins, but never alone. However, among Slytherin, former Death Eaters were shunned. Draco lost his entire friend group because most people hated him the most. The only one who stayed throughout the whole ordeal was Y/N. She stayed even when most of his friends left and avoided him. Draco was perhaps the most hated person in Hogwarts.

Y/N was one of the few unaffected Slytherins due to her role as a healer in the war. She had grieved with them as they wept over the loss of their loved ones. To those who saw her in battle knew she hated the war. There had been no winning side in her mind. Just one side that lost less and one side that lost more. She had never been overly kind, but she had always maintained basic courtesy. That kept people from hating her despite her status as a pureblooded Slytherin. 

Sometimes he felt insecure about his relationship with Y/N. He heard the whispers and felt the doubt grow within him the more he heard them gossip. Why _did_ Y/N choose to stay with him as his girlfriend? He had _nothing_ left, but she still chose to stand by him. He asked her one day, and she told him why.

"I've lived in a gilded cage. You were the one who made it feel like the bars disappeared. The freedom you helped me feel, I can never forget it."

He scanned her face to determine if she was lying to him. She wasn't. Draco pulled her close to him and refused to let go of her. They stayed there for a long time, enjoying one another's presences.

* * *

Years later, Y/N and Draco Malfoy were happily married and expecting their first child together. A photograph in a frame on their nightstand mirrored what Y/N had seen in the Mirror of Erised all those years ago. They were happy together, Draco holding her close as he smiled and laughed. Mirror, mirror on the wall. Who is the happiest of them all? It seems that things worked out just fine in the end. 

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading! :3


End file.
